1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling access to a relay device which relays communication in a communication network.
2. Related Art
Wireless communication is a kind of communication in a communication network. JP-A-2006-60589 discloses a group management system which is a relay device relaying communication in a wireless communication network. When the group management system detects an information device existing in a predetermined range, it carries out a user authentication of the information device and transmits a private key to the information device if the user authentication is successful. This enables the information device to wirelessly communicate with the group management system.
According to the technique disclosed in JP-A-2006-60589, the wireless communication with the group management system is determined depending on whether or not the user authentication is successful. For this reason, users of all of information devices are required to input information needed for user authentication (hereinafter, referred to as “user authentication information”) whenever they enter a predetermined range.
In order to solve this problem, a method can be considered in which, for example, the information device stores the user authentication information in advance and transmits the stored user authentication information to the group management system upon entering a predetermined range. However, in this method, the group management system is required to store the user authentication information of all users in advance, in order to allow wireless communication. Thereby, this method cannot be adopted in the case where the users to whom communication is allowable are not determined in advance.
The problems described above may also occur with communication other than wireless communication.